The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge.All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author or StoreyPublishing. The author and publisher disclaim any liability in connection with the useof this information.

PREFACEWhen my grandmother was 83 years old, I was standing withher in her brother Joe’s kitchen. I was a mere 22 years old andwas trying to prepare dinner. Uncle Joe’s knives were so dullthat they would’ve had a tough time cutting through butter. Iremembered that old saying, “The only thing more dangerousthan a sharp knife is a dull knife.” The implication is that youhave to press harder with a dull knife, and that you’ll probablyslip and end up cutting yourself.So I turned to my grandmother and was sure I could showoff how smart I was. “Gramma,” I said, “do you know what’smore dangerous than a sharp knife?” She answered right back,“A woman’s tongue.” I said, “Umm, no, it’s a dull knife,” and Iexplained why. I was all set to claim victory when she lookedat me and said, “That may be true, but there’s nothing moredangerous than a woman’s tongue.”The moral of the story? Never try to get cute with a short,sharp-tongued Cockney grandmother. It will always end badly.

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INTRODUCTIONDuring the hundreds of classes and cooking demonstrations that I’ve taught over the years, thetopic that I’m asked about more than any otheris knives. People have questions about what typesof knives to buy, how to use them, how to keepthem sharp, and more. And I discovered something along the way: it’s people’s concerns andquestions about their knife skills that preventthem from becoming more confident cooks. I’vemet many cooks who make terrific food but thentell me how stressed and nervous they are withtheir knives.Well, help has arrived and you’re reading it right now. Thisbook will give you the confidence to choose and use the knivesand other nonelectric sharp tools in your kitchen. It’s also areference book that you can use as you improve your skills andacquire the tools that will make you a better cook!

1

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Most kitchens are filled with tools and gadgets that rangefrom the most basic things that you need to cook to frivolousitems that you never actually use. How do you decide whichtools you need and want? How do you use them? And how doyou take care of them so they’ll last, in some cases, forever?This book will answer those questions so you won’t end upwith “it seemed like a good idea” things filling your kitchendrawers. Whether you’re a new or experienced cook, I canguide you through the maze of knives and other sharp tools. Ican help you become a better, more confident cook by choosingthe tools that suit your needs and budget.

2 Introduction

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CHAPTER ONE

HOW TO CHOOSEAND USEYOUR KNIVESKnives are the most important tools in yourkitchen. Without them, all you can do is eat oatmeal, bananas, and take-out food. Choosing theright knives is crucial. What knives do you absolutely need? And what other knives do you wantafter you have the basics covered?At the bare minimum, you need to have two knives: a chef’sknife for cutting, chopping, and slicing, and a paring knife forthe smaller tasks. The differences between these two knivesare reflected in their size and the size of the food you’re cutting. A chef’s knife is so large that you wouldn’t be able toget the fine movements needed to take the top off a strawberry without risking some damage to your fingers. And if youwere to try to carve a turkey with a paring knife, you and yourguests might have to wait a long time before dinner is served. 3

Together, these two knives meet the minimum requirementsfor you to be a confident cook.But to help make cooking easier and more efficient, I thinkevery cook needs “four and a half” knives. Along with the chef’sknife and paring knife, these include a 6-inch utility knife, anoffset handle serrated deli knife, and a bench scraper (whichis what I refer to as half a knife). Any knives beyond these aretask specific and will help you as your skills and collection ofrecipes grow.But wait.Some people would put one more knife into this must-havecategory: a Japanese Santoku knife. Many people use this knifeinstead of a chef’s knife. Its shape and thin blade are ideal forslicing fruit and vegetables.JapaneseSantoku knife

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CHEF’S KNIFEThe chef’s knife will be your go-to knife for the vast major-

ity of your cutting, chopping, slicing, and dicing. With it youcan carve meat and poultry, chop onions, slice tomatoes, andmince cilantro and parsley. Plus a whole lot more.Chef’s knives generally come in three sizes: 8, 10, and 12inches. The most popular size is the 8-inch knife. Many peoplefeel a larger knife is too big, and that it will be less safe and effective to use. But if you hold your knife correctly and follow thechef’s knife techniques, you’ll find that a 10-inch chef’s knife ismore efficient, less tiring, and safer to use than an 8-inch one.This might seem contradictory, as it seems like you willneed more effort to control a longer knife. But, if you’re slicingan onion, or almost any food, your arm and wrist will have tolift higher with a shorter blade. That’s because chef’s kniveshave an area that’s used most effectively for slicing and chopping. It’s like the “sweet spot” on a tennis racquet, golf club, ora baseball or cricket bat. On the chef’s knife, this is toward theback half of the blade. This is where the weight of the knife,THE PA RTS OF A CHEF’S K NIFE

handle(covers tang)

tip

edge

heel

bolster

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combined with your effort, gives you the most effective cuttingarea. A shorter knife has a smaller sweet spot, and it must belifted higher for that area to cut the food. As a result, the areathat actually cuts the food is smaller. This puts more strain onyour wrist, arm, and shoulder. For the same cutting results,with an 8-inch chef’s knife, you have to work harder. And for alonger period of time too.

How to Hold a Chef’s KnifeWhile it’s important to be able to cut your food as you want,it’s even more important to do it safely so you’ll end up withas many fingers and thumbs as when you started the day.Remember, you want to cut your food, not your fingers.Let’s start with the knife hand. The first illustration on thenext page shows the correct method; the next two illustrationsshow comfortable but unsafe ways to hold a knife.The illustration showing knuckles under the handle highlights two problems. With the knife held this way, your knuckles will hit against the cutting board. This gets painful after awhile. The second problem is that holding your knife like thismeans that you don’t have full lateral control of your knife.This will cause your knife to wiggle from side to side. In theillustration with the index finger extended, you probably won’thit your knuckles on the board but you’ll still have poor lateralcontrol of the knife. If you are cutting something hard, like acarrot, the knife will probably slip a little. Or a lot.The illustration with the thumb and forefinger held at thebeginning of the blade, almost pinching it, shows how to havecomplete control of the knife, including lateral control. Notonly will this reduce your chances of cutting yourself, but it willalso actually require less effort for you to cut the food. That’sbecause the knife is going exactly where you want it to go whilebeing held firmly, without slipping, in your hand.

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THE CORRECT WAY to holda knife with the thumb andforefinger alongside the bolster.

TWO INCORRECT WAYS to hold a knife:knuckles under handle, and index fingerextended.

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On the Other HandBoth hands play a role in how to use a chef’s knife, as well as allother knives. The hand not holding the knife, called the guidehand, is very important because it’s holding and guiding thefood being cut.

THE CORRECT WAY

to hold food.

THE WRONG WAY to hold food.

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The first illustration on page 9 shows the correct and safeway to hold the food, with your fingers almost standing up.This forms a shield, or barrier, when you’re cutting the food.Plus, it removes your fingertips from being anywhere near theknife’s blade. Since there’s rarely a time when you need to pickyour knife tip up from the cutting board, your knife will notbe rising above your bent fingers. Which means you won’t cutthem. The one problem with doing it this way is that it feelsawkward and unnatural until you’ve practiced it for a while.The second illustration shows the wrong way to hold thefood being cut, with the hand resting in a natural position.Most people hold their food like this for two reasons: it’s morecomfortable, and they’ve been doing it this way forever. Theproblem with this technique is that it exposes all of your fingers to being cut when the knife slips. Not if the knife slips.When the knife slips.

Basic Chef’s Knife TechniquesSliding and chopping are the two basic chef’s knife techniques. The sliding technique is used to cut and slice food suchas onions, scallions, and carrots. The knife slides forward whilecutting, and is pulled back, above or away from the food, to sliceagain. Note how the tip of the knife stays on the cutting board.The second technique is used to chop herbs or mince foodthat’s already been cut, such as onions or garlic. One handholds the knife as the other hand rests on top of the knife nearthe end of the blade. Picture the face of a clock. The knife thenpivots while chopping, going from approximately 4:00 to 5:00

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(maybe 3:30 to 5:30), and back again, to continuously chop thefood smaller and smaller. A large mound of parsley sprigs willbe reduced to small bits of minced parsley in less than a minuteby using this technique.Both techniques have one thing in common: the tip ofthe chef’s knife does not leave the cutting board while you’recutting, slicing, or chopping. This is important because manypeople are under the impression that lifting the knife in the airwhile cutting and chopping is faster, more efficient, and coollooking. It’s none of these. Every time you lift your knife offthe board, you are losing some control over it. Keeping the tipon the board allows you to begin your motion where you wantit to be. If you start, or continue, to have the knife in the airbefore cutting into the food, then the knife won’t go exactlywhere you want it to go. It might go there. But not every time.And not safely.

MINCING CILANTRO using

the chopping technique.

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SLICING CARROTS using the sliding knife technique.

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Santoku Knives . . . the Other Chef’s Knife?The Santoku knife (page 4) has gained popularity in recentyears and many home cooks use it, rather than a chef’s knife,for most of their everyday tasks. But while a Santoku knifehas many great attributes, especially as a slicer, it lacks theversatility of a chef’s knife. When you safely use a chef’s knife,you rarely have to lift it from the cutting board. It’s easieron the arm and shoulder, with the board taking much of theimpact and weight of the work. Because the Santoku is muchshorter than a chef’s knife, it cannot be used with the samecomfort and efficiency. You’d have to constantly lift the knifeoff the cutting board because it is too short to slide back andforth like a chef’s knife. The difference in length also meansthat you cannot slice and chop in the same volume as a chef’sknife without increased fatigue and a decrease in accuracy.Plus, more of the effort of your work will go from the knife toyour arm and shoulder.I do like the Santoku knife. But I think of it as a hybridbetween the 6-inch utility knife and a chef’s knife rather thana replacement. There are enough differences and similaritiesbetween chef’s knives and Santoku knives to make theSantoku a valuable addition to your collection of regularlyused cutlery. The biggest difference, which makes the Santokuso valuable, is its stability and effectiveness as a slicer for somany foods including carrots, onions, tomatoes, and rawchicken breast.

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PARING KNIFEThe paring knife (page 4) is the second most important

knife to have, if for no other reason than it can do the smalltasks for which the chef’s knife is too big. Why would a chef’sknife be too big for a job? Take an onion, for example. While achef’s knife is pointy and sharp enough to take the root end outof an onion, your hand will be so far away that you really won’thave the control to make the small, fine cuts as you would withthe paring knife. You’d be more likely to cut your hand thanthe onion.What tasks does the paring knife do best? Paring is definedas the act of cutting away an edge or a surface. While this wouldimply a vegetable peeler, it’s more than that. With a sharp paring knife you can easily peel an apple, tomato, or orange. Youcan use it to hull strawberries, remove the core from tomatoesand onions, and slice the segments out of a piece of citrus witha supreme cut (see Preparing Fruit, page 97). It’s also a perfectknife for slicing salamis and many cheeses. You can even peela grape with a paring knife.Not all paring knives look the same. Their blades can bebetween 2 and 4 inches long, and some blades are curvier thanothers. And unlike other types of knives, you don’t always haveto use a cutting board when using a paring knife. The tasksare often too small, and too close, to be accurate and efficienton a cutting board. As long as you take your time and don’tdirect the knife toward you, you can safely and comfortablyhold and turn the food in your guide hand. Depending on the

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task, you may hold the paring knife in one hand while keepingthe thumb of your knife hand on the food. It’s more about thecomfort level with the task, which you do slowly, rather thanthe method used, as with the chef’s knife.THREE DIFFERENT WAYS TO HOLD A PA RING K NIFE

cutting a peach inhalf around the pit

trimming the stem outof a halved onion

cutting corn kernelsoff the cobParing Knife 15

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UTILITY KNIFEThe utility knife (page 4) is used less often than the par-

ing knife, but it plays the role of the in-between knife. It doesthose odd tasks that are too small for the chef’s knife and toobig for the paring knife, like taking the core out of a cabbage (ora cauliflower). To do so, pierce the cabbage and carefully movethe knife slowly alongside the core. After each downward slice— with your guide hand on the cabbage above the knife, out ofthe path of the blade — stop, rotate the cabbage a quarter turn,and slice again. Repeat. This is a slow process, as the core canbe quite dense. If you try to do this quickly, then your knife willprobably slip and the tip can break off.

CORING A CABBAGE with a utility knife.

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Other uses for a utility knife include carving roasted poultry or cutting the ends off onions, then peeling them. Or, itmight be the knife closest at hand, and you want to slice atomato or cut the peel and pith (the white inner layer) off anorange. It’s also very good for slicing small blocks of cheese.

least known of all these knives. It’s also the most versatile. Thebenefits of this knife come from both the blade and the handle.Serrated knives have more pronounced teeth on their bladesthan most other knives. The large teeth allow the knife to literally get a grip on the food before cutting it while other knivesstart sliding immediately. This allows you to cut foods withodd-textured crusts and skins that often seem to fight backwith regular knives. Ideal tasks include slicing crusty breads,cutting the outer skin off melons and other large fruit, slicingtomatoes, and cutting sandwiches and bagels.As the blade cuts right through these irregular surfaces,the offset handle allows your knuckles to avoid hitting eitherthe cutting board or the counter. I never used an offset handleserrated knife until after I graduated from cooking school. I’mnot sure I’d even seen one. I had used regular handle serratedknives before on bread and tomatoes. I still have two or threeof them stashed away in a cabinet. As I mentioned earlier, ifyou’re not comfortable with a knife, then you won’t use it.

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That idea hadn’t dawned on me until I realized that I wasn’tusing my serrated knives at all.So how can an oddly shaped handle change a knife frombeing discarded to being so valuable? It’s my knuckles. Andyour knuckles too. As with a badly held chef’s knife, the regular handle serrated knife, with its narrow handle and blade,doesn’t allow room for your knuckles to clear the cutting boardwhile slicing tomatoes and bread.The offset handle serrated deli knife isn’t perfect. Becauseits teeth are so large, it’s very difficult to sharpen this knife.Most home sharpening tools cannot sharpen a serrated blade,and many sharpening professionals can’t do it either. Althoughit doesn’t need to be sharpened as often as other knives, youshouldn’t overspend when buying this knife. When it gets toodull after a few years, or more, of use, then buy a new one. It’sa small price to pay for such a versatile knife.